#arguably the whole party does things like this for each other

[existingonthisplane]

Mike biking around to whatever friends house with treats and snacks and medicine whenever someone is feeling sick/down will forever be a hc I hold close to my heart

[bakasara]

Trying to parse my thoughts on Izzy's death and why I had a different reaction to it than I thought I would. To summarize: I thought I wouldn't like it, but also that they wouldn't do it; the opposite happened– they did it but I'm ok with it.

I'm also feeling like talking through some mourning for an amazing character, so follow along if that's you, too 😌

(I should probably clarify the following thoughts are coming from someone who deeply enjoyed this season.)

I first wondered what would be of Izzy around the end of season 1. I expected him to have a heel-face turn – which I object to calling a redemption arc and I'll get into why, because the distinction ties into his death imo. A lot of antagonistic characters' changes of heart end directly in death, but I thought they'd subvert that trope. And they... did, actually, despite Izzy dying. Not an option I had imagined.

What the show avoided is the logic, the set of tropes attached to the deaths of this kind of character. These deaths usually come as a consequence of the character's changed ethics or "redemption". My being against that scenario came from the diverging natures of traditional redemption arcs and OFMD's rhetoric.

A traditional redemption arc functions by a kind of catholic logic, if you will: the villain can become one of the good guys by balancing out his "sins"/bad deeds with enough good deeds to tip a moral scale. This often involves a purifying suffering, which acts as an agent to expiate one's faults. To the viewer, this suffering can serve to activate our empathy and make the character more sympathetic. It can also legitimize his quest: our trust in the character's good intentions comes from seeing that the character is ready to make sacrifices to become better and he isn't deterred by the hardships of doing the right thing.

The death occurring at the end of a traditional redemption arc acts as the ultimate sacrifice and/or purification. A number of ideas might be at play behind it, depending on each story: only in death can the soul become fully pure, or a final sacrifice is "needed" to demonstrate the change once and for all, or change was only possible up to a point after which there is no viable/acceptable future – the character deserves moral points for changing, but not so many that he also deserves a full life, or past crimes make him more expendable, etc.

But these are all ideas that aren't evoked in any of the crew's journey in OFMD. For starters, the show isn't interested in "catholic" redemption; its focus is on reintegration/rehabilitation into the community. Rather than appealing to the more traditional (in Western media) and more christian principle of "purification of the soul through mortification of the body", it plays with notions of restorative justice.

We see it especially this season with Ed and Izzy. Ed's arc is a whole little lab for it. We have the community being made to decide whether he can stay or should leave; catbell!Ed is made to apologize to the people affected – which he initially does abysmally, with what fandom has dubbed his "CEO's/YouTube apology". Later, he's given the opportunity to have a more honest and genuine conversation with Fang where he learns about how he hurt him. He's made to repair some of the material damage his behavior caused. Some members feel repaid by the idea that they did to him the same he did to them (Fang) while others don't (Lucius), and the show touches on what this means for each/legitimizes both feelings. Arguably, Ed using his treasure to throw Calypso's birthday party – a much needed refrain and moment of social (re-)connection within the community – is an additional form of reparation. While Stede's belief in Ed has a clear role in helping Ed change for the better, Izzy's s2 journey focuses even more intensely on the role of social support within an individual's constructive (re-)integration into their community. The show is condensed by choice of format, but the beats are all there.

With that kind of rhetoric set up, I'd never be able to accept Izzy dying in a way that feels like a punishment for his past crimes, nor in a way that should "confirm" his positive change/"purify" him for good. And he doesn't! By the time he dies, we know full well he's deeply changed, it's already established to completion. How it happens has nothing to do with proving himself – he's randomly shot in battle. It's never questioned that the time he got to live surrounded by affection mattered. The speech he gives Ed is only possible because he's changed, accessing a completely different perspective on piracy/life than before, like we see when he talks to Ricky earlier. The reason the whole crew is paying respect and crying is because he became "the new unicorn", a treasured member with a defined role. But his death itself is the show going back to the initial symbolism of Izzy as ultimate pirate. The narrative function of his death is underscoring that the age of piracy has come to an end. It's nothing to do with his change. It's posited as the "natural conclusion" (again, by symbolic function) of a character that represented piracy through-and-through, not the "natural conclusion" of a process of becoming better.

And for me, that difference changes everything. I can see and accept the logic behind it, even as I mourn Izzy as a character. It makes the grief feel like a catharsis I experience within the context of the story I'm watching, rather than a grief I feel from a show "betraying" me.

It's also a difference that completely changes how Izzy's death relates to his queerness. Izzy's change is intertwined with being able to express queer affection openly. Becoming "a unicorn" is this extremely queer imagery already – a magical rainbow creature. His role becomes akin to a mother to the crew (the mother hen!Izzy many headcanoned last season, tapping into his potential), a position that isn't extraneous to older queens, including our honored real-life mean-old-queer men. Last season he threatened another queer man for showing too much delicacy, effeminacy, vulnerability. Now, his change is a process that culminates in him singing a tender love song among the crew in drag. He's given the privilege of playing the soundtrack to our protagonists making love for the first time, which ties him symbolically to the event in a way it does no other crew member. Suffice it to say that insinuating his process of change should end in death would have been disastrous, as far as I'm concerned. Antithetical to the show's supporting ideology.

But that's not how it went. Grief occupies a big role in the queer community, but it's so rare that we get to experience it cathartically. In real life, we often have to contend with the ways queerphobia causes us trauma or even shortens our lives, or the lives of our friends. In fictional narratives, a lot of characters that get to express queerness unabashedly still die for the transgression. They're still usually the only queer character with relevant screen time or at all, at best one of two that formed a tragic couple.

We almost never have the opportunity to just mourn some motherfucker who died because they meant something else as well that was central to their character. To mourn and know we're mourning someone who wasn't ever punished for being queer-as-in-fuck-you and going all out. To mourn and not feel like it's another message of queer doom, because for once the character is surrounded by an entire crew of other queer characters that go on to live and be happy. To know the story is saying something about life, not about being queer. To know this kind of crafting was deliberate, too, because the creator has talked about working to avoid those tropes. I struggle to remember another time I had the opportunity to grieve for a queer character like they're a human being, without the implication that it's queerness itself that's a death sentence.

And honestly? It feels good. It feels like a form of catharsis I do not dislike. That I'm maybe kinda glad for. OFMD is and stays a magical world. Beyond that, in a show full of queers, one of them dies after getting some extraordinarily meaningful happiness, and it's peaceful, and I get to just be sad for the fucker without the gutting of being reminded that if you're gay, better not shoot too high. It feels like a completely different emotion that no other show, for now, would give me, but OFMD. To me, it's yet another thing it's pulled off.

As it's been known to do.

[eastern-lights]

Ok so we all know how amazing Baldur's Gate 3 is. I could talk for hours about everything it did perfectly.

But rn, I want to talk about what I think Dragon Age Inquisition did better. And this is not to judge which game is better overall, but what still makes DAI so special to me despite its flaws.

1. Voiced protagonist

Yeah, starting off controversial. I know some people prefer silent protagonists, but I just find myself wishing we could have a fully voiced Tav, even at the cost of fewer dialogue options. I'm sorry, but Tav's silent indifferent face just always breaks the immersion for me, especially when contrasted with the award-worthy acting and animation of the characters they're speaking with. In DAI (and DA2, although to a lesser degree) your character could be heavily customized, but they were always an actual person who fit in with the rest of the universe and flowed seamlessly with the story.

2. Mystery and dread.

BG3 is full of heavy, scary, traumatizing stuff hidden all over the place (or in plain sight). But it can always be explained in some way. There are dreadful things in Faerûn, but we always know what they are (mostly due to most of them having to have precisely given stats as the result of being based on DnD). We know what happens after death and what we can do to bring people back from it. The closest you get to truly dread-inducing mystery in BG3 is "Do Illithids have souls" and "where do illithids come from" and (at least in Act 1) "who is the Absolute".

In Dragon Age, the whole world is made of existential dread. What happens when you die? Dunno. Is God real? No idea and if He does, He hates you. What is the Blight? Are all darkspawn capable of independent thought? What is lyrium singing about? What happened to the titans? What happens when all of the Old Gods die? And this is just the Big Questions. There's a myriad of small things, small mysteries you encounter that just have no answers. Stuff that reminds me of those creepy Goldshire children forming a pentagram in World of Warcraft. While having an explanation for everything makes for deeper worldbuilding, a world full of mysteries without answers makes for a much scarier and, in some ways, exciting experience.

3. Group dynamic and party banter

I enjoyed the party banter in BG3. Hell, it had some of the funniest lines in game. But it didn't do enough to make the group dynamic feel any less Tav/Durge-centric. You hear the companions exchange banter, but you never get beyond stuff like "Karlach and Shadowheart both enjoy wine" and "Gale enjoys Lae'zel telling him about the Astral plane". The protagonist forms amazingly written relationships with each of the companions, but they never seem to have such a bond with one another. The closest we come to what I'd like to see is Karlach and Wyll's friendship, but even that's kind of shallow, I feel. The companions do comment on the others' personal quest, but it's always one sentence reaction, before going right back to being mostly indifferent. DA2 had the same issue, if to a greater extent (srsly, the companions had the same attitude about one another over the span of 10 years)

The banter in DAI was superb. It told a story. It had arcs. You could watch in real time as Solas and Dorian became friends over their shared magical nerd-dom. You could even take part in it, such as when telling Blackwall to stfu about jousting for a moment, or telling Sera that what you and Solas do in private is none of her business. You could see Dorian and Bull fall in love. You could watch Varric slowly chip away at Solas' worldview until he arguably came closer to changing his plans than Lavellan ever did. The relationships grow over the course of the story and by the time of Solas' betrayal, you're not just sad because he betrayed you, you're sad because he betrayed Varric, Dorian, Bull, Cassandra and everyone else. Because you saw how they cared about him, each in their own way.

There is nothing more heartbreaking than Varric's "Chuckles, what have you done?"

In BG3, the relationships are mostly left to your imagination, which has its perks, but still, the group dynamic feels more like a wheel with Tav at the centre rather than a web.

4. Having limits on the romance options

Let me start by stating what I am not saying: I am not saying that bi and pan people shouldn't be represented. Far from it. But I don't think making the whole group pan is the way to go about it. I can't help but feeling it is, in a way, pandering to players, making every single companion interested in them as long as they have a sufficiently high approval.

Making some companions explicitly bi, pan, gay or straight made for a more real experience. Getting rejected by Sera on the grounds of "We have a lot in common - we both like women" felt disappointing, yes, but also real. This also allowed the writers to make the characters' sexual/romantic preferences a part of their, well, character. We got Dorian's personal quest, which I think is great. Limiting Solas' options to just Lavellan allowed the writers to make it about him realizing that his people are not mere shadows. It allowed them to write the Vallaslin scene. None of this could have been done if he were romanceable to all races.

When you have diversity in romantic attraction among the companions, suddenly the pan and bi characters (in Bull and Josie respectively) feel like their orientation is part of who they are, rather than a game mechanic to prevent players from missing out on content.

[foggyfanfic]

Camilo Analysis

Bruh, who even is Camilo? He is arguably the Madrigal we get the least real characterization for, other than Teenage Boy, which is a very broad category of person. So as per usual, it helps me to get my thoughts in order if I write this stuff down.

First, Mirabel introduces Camilo through song and we right of way see him shapeshift into a young mother so he can sooth her baby while she takes a nap. That's actually a really great way to imply several things about his character (oh my god guys, this movie is so well written).

Thoughtful enough to offer a new mom a chance to rest

Comfortable caring for infants (probs helped care for Antonio?)

More patient than I would have thought, because taking care of a baby while the mother rests is not a quick and easy favor

Sort of implies that he likes kids

Then Mirabel sings he "won't stop until he makes you smile today" while he turns into multiple people and doing goofy stuff. Everybody already knows he's an entertainer at heart but I gotta add it to the list anyways.

5. Likes making people laugh

6. Plays around with his gift a lot

Moving on to Antonio's party, he's the guy greeting all the villagers by name, and he changes his energy to match each person.

7. Knows a lot of the villagers

8. Charming and personable

9. Respects his elders (kisses the old woman on the cheek)

He jokes around with Antonio, probably in an attempt to soothe his nerves, and teases his Pa. This reinforces points one, four, five and six. If this was a different list, I would talk about what it means that Camilo is clearly comfortable teasing his father, despite the seemingly stern reaction Félix has, but I digress.

He stands with Julieta while Antonio and Mirabel walk to the door, giving birth to a lot headcanons about them being especially close, and I'm going to roll with it.

10. Of his siblings, he's closest to Julieta.

Then he's very excited for Antonio as he discovers his room, it's actually the happiest we see him in the movie (other than perhaps when he's dancing in We Don't Talk About Bruno). So:

11. Supportive? Or maybe just enjoys seeing other people happy?

Plot happens, fast forward to breakfast when he pretends to be Dolores so he can get double the food. Then teases Isabela about Mariano, something he does a lot in the movie.

12. Likes food.

13. In his Little Shit era

Fast forward some more, all the way to We Don't Talk About Bruno. He absolutely kills it, and clearly enjoys the whole production. If you're like me and you headcanon that the musical numbers happen in universe then we can conclude:

13.5. Fucking loves living in a musical

And if you headcanon they don't:

14. Enjoys telling stories.

15. Probably hasn't thought through the consequences of telling everybody his Tío is a seven foot tall boogy man that feasts on screams. Which is very normal for a fifteen year old boy.

Teases Isabela about Mariano again. More plot happens. Time For Dinner. Dolores gossips to him as soon as she can, then he immediately gossips to his Pá. When Félix accidentally spits his drink onto Mariano, Camilo has to hold in a laugh. It's possible he doesn't really like Mariano, he keeps making jokes about the guy, at the very least he doesn't take him seriously. I wonder if he's the sort of guy that prefers to hang out with women?

16. Close to his sister.

17. Close to his father.

18. Shapeshifts reflexively/accidentally.

More plot. We see him try to soothe his mother.

19. Takes care of his Má. Pepa is literally unable to hide her emotions, so it would make sense that, through no real fault of her own, the kids slowly learn to take care of her as they grow up. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and all. On the flip side, the fact that sun beams come out whenever they get home from school or learn a new skill probs means the kids can never doubt that Pepa loves them. Plus, she likely has the easiest time transitioning from a parent-child relationship to a parent-adult offspring relationship of all the adults. So Camilo might be growing closer to his Má as he gets closer to adulthood.

The longer the plot goes on the less we see him. He's clearly frustrated with his gift glitching on him, but that doesn't really tell me much. It's a situation that would frustrate anyone and they don't show us how he handles those negative emotions. They also don't show us how he handles hearing the end of Mirabel's and Abuela's argument. Rude. They do show us him leaping to the candle's aid while the house crashes down around him so clearly:

20. Sees the Miracle as more important than his own safety.

The house falls, the candle goes out, in the background we hear him first remark on his gift being gone, then wonder how this will effect his little brother. We already know he enjoys using his gift, I can theorize he's made Being a Shapeshifter an important part of his identity, but all we have that's concrete is:

21: He doesn't just enjoy his gift, it is important to him.

22. Empathetic.

Mirabel runs off, resolution happens, Mirabel comes back. He is the one who cuts through the reunion to point out their house is gone, and even gets a little exasperated when he catches a bit of flack from Félix.

23. Not an optimist. Might be a pessimist, but most likely just not particularly sentimental.

For the rest of the scene he exists in a state of confusion. The hits start coming and they don't stop coming. Apparently Tío Bruno is just suddenly back now? And it kind of seems like half the family isn't surprised or asking any questions?! There's not a lot of conclusions I can draw from him being shocked and confused that Bruno just sort of appeared out of nowhere, I think most people would be. And unlike the parents or the older cousins, he doesn't have enough memories from when Bruno was around to be swept up in the joy of seeing him again. His reaction is relatable and endearing, but not very revealing.

The last character moment we get is when he tries to twirl the shovel around all fancy, almost drops it, then checks to make sure Mirabel wasn't watching. It reinforces things already mentioned, like him being showy, and wanting to entertain those around him, but also:

24. Wants to be seen as cool. Another very normal trait for a teenage boy.

It is interesting that the first person he looks at is Mirabel, I can't help but wonder if that would have been the case at the beginning of the movie. There's room for interpretation there, but regardless, by the end of the movie:

25. Respects Mirabel's opinion.

[mehoymalloy]

What attracts you to Imotohan? Idk if I get it yet….

One day I should make, like, a ship manifesto...

Today is not that day; instead, you get a collection of references to other posts that I found when I couldn't sleep last night.

Reason Number 1: I really like enemies to lovers as a trope.

I always have, ever since I started reading fanfic way back in the day with Kim/Shego lol. But I especially love when two characters allow me to totally buck the more traditional power dynamics of one party having all the power while the other has none, which I find boring and not at all fun to explore.

At first glance, Otohan does have the upper hand a lot of the time in their dynamic (I mean, hell, they start out by slaughtering half of Imogen's friends and the love of her life). But it’s pretty easy (and very fun) to give Imogen opportunities to be on equal footing with Otohan or even surpass them entirely. And the Tension that comes with exploring two characters who hate each other but can’t help but be attracted to each other is just what I find the most interesting and fun to explore in my own writing in particular.

Sources (lol):

Cool Art that really HITS with the Enemies aspect.

Would also be remiss if I didn't plug Shamie’s art, who has created So Much art because I throw money at her every chance I get. Just scroll her whole otohan thull tag, you won't regret it.

Good Thoughts with my own tiny addition about shipping culture in general.

A nice little ask about characterization and violence.

Reason Number 2: They’re obsessed with each other.

To the point that the cast themself see it and take advantage of it in-game (see here, when Sam pulled 'the one you're so keen to meet with' out of his ass, assumedly failed a deception check, and yet Otohan still either humored them or just zeroed in on 'Imogen? Where's Imogen? Tell me where Imogen is' anyway like a fucking simp.)

Otohan in particular also displays a frankly terrifying amount of ‘care’ and effort in getting Imogen to exalt in the battle at Bassuras, which I talk more about here. It’s what kicked off my intrigue with this ship and got me to try my hand and writing them (and then never stopped, as you can see).

Imogen, for her part, is just understandably terrified of but also constantly infuriated with Otohan (shitpost that shows that well). She says Otohan’s name with such vitriol and I adore her for it. Very ‘I’m gonna punch you in the mouth with my own mouth’ energy.

Here’s some video clips that show off their actual in-game dynamic really well, this one brilliantly set to My Kink is Karma (thank you @corkulous) and another to Death of Me (a million thanks to @lavendertheys).

Reason Number 3: They push each other’s buttons really damn well.

Arguably the most important thing in a ship for me after Tension.

We saw Otohan lose their patience exactly once, in my opinion, during the final battle when they called Imogen a ‘bitch,’ and as I said in this post, I think Imogen deserved so many more opportunities to rile Otohan up like that, especially in actual conversation as opposed to combat. She’s just so good at it, by golly, and if I can't see it in canon I can at least write about it.

And I mean, Otohan got Imogen to exalt (the only time she has done so, to my knowledge) and blow up a whole city block; I think it's safe to say they can get under her skin if they work at it, and I wish they had even more horrible opportunities to do so in canon before they kicked the bucket.

Anyways, that's the gist of what attracts me to Imotohan. If you don't get it, then the ship might just not be for you, which is totally fine—to each their own! Thanks for giving me an excuse to yap about themb~

[twistedtummies2]

Top 10 Maleficent Appearances

Earlier this week, I decided to celebrate Founding Day for Disney by discussing my favorite appearances of their flagship character, Mickey Mouse. However, as anybody who knows me well will likely be aware, Mickey isn’t my primary draw for Disney. None of the Disney heroes are, really. For me, the biggest group of characters that fascinate me most with Disney are its Villains. And while there are many great Disney Villains that I love - Scar, the Evil Queen, Jafar, Cruella De Vil, and more - my favorite has always been, and likely always will be, the Mistress of All Evil herself: Maleficent. Originally debuting in 1959’s “Sleeping Beauty,” this dark fairy is arguably for the Disney Villains lineup what Mickey is to Disney as a whole. While not unanimously EVERYONE’S favorite Disney Villain, she is in the top ten for many, many people. More importantly, she is arguably the single villainess with the most clout Disney has created: in virtually anything that promotes the lineup, Maleficent is used, and usually has some sort of starring or majorly featured role. She’s often depicted as the leader of the villains, and it’s no surprise why: with her stone-cold demeanor, grandiose style, and absolutely REMARKABLE feats of power and menace, she is easily one of the most dangerous and despicable villains the company has forked out through their animated productions. Maleficent is not only my favorite Disney Villain, but quite possibly one of my top three favorite villains of all time, alongside Count Dracula and Batman’s Joker. And, seeing as Halloweentime is usually Disney’s “Season of the Villain,” and this IS still the 100th Anniversary of Disney itself…yeah. Now seems a perfect time to cover my favorite appearances this Dark Queen has had since her debut. On that note, no, the original Sleeping Beauty will NOT be counted here, simply because I think that’s cheating. This will be for all of Maleficent’s greatest roles since her cinematic premiere. With that said…here are My Top 10 Maleficent Appearances (besides Sleeping Beauty)!

10. Villains Mix & Mingle/Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular.

Our first entry on the countdown is a Halloweentime special stage show at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. This show has changed several times over the years, and with each revolution, Maleficent has been present in some form or another. The original version of the show, called “Villains Mix & Mingle,” featured Maleficent and Captain Hook as the hosts of the Event; it was basically a story-less mini-revue, dedicated to Disney Villains. The “plot” had Maleficent throwing a Halloween Party (I guess she was tired of not being invited to any herself), and summoning various Disney Villains to dance the night away. In the late 2000s, the show changed to have Dr. Facilier as the sole host of the event. Maleficent still appeared, but was now simply one of the basically mute villains attending the festivities. More recently, the show has not exactly vanished so much as evolved into a whole new production, known as “Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular.” This much longer, slightly more story-based version has the Sanderson Sisters throwing the ball. Facilier, Maleficent, and Oogie Boogie are all featured in major supporting roles, while other villains once again show up as mute guests to the party. Halloween is the “Season of the Villain” at the Disney Parks, as I said before, and few villains match the spirit of the season as much as Maleficent does; if this stage show and its many iterations proves one thing, it’s that the Mistress of All Evil is as synonymous with Halloween for Disney as ghosts and goblins are. You simply can’t have a gathering of baddies in the autumn and not feature her at all.

9. Once Upon a Time.

I’ve always had sort of mixed feelings about the version of Maleficent from the TV series “Once Upon a Time.” This interpretation tried to make the character a much more sympathetic antagonist than arguably ever before. Her origins are shrouded in tragedy, and a major part of her motivations in the show comes from her seeking her long-lost daughter. (It seems to be a recurring thing to make Maleficent a mother or mother-like figure…I’m not entirely sure why.) Actress Kristin Bauer von Stratten brought her all to the role, and while I never liked her first costume design, the one that appeared in the “Queens of Darkness” story arc (pictured here) was a VAST improvement. My problem with this Maleficent is that they couldn’t seem to decide what kind of character she should be; I had no issue with the more sympathetic portrayal, on the whole, but it bugged me how they were always building her up as this figure of ultimate evil in many bits of dialogue, only to then whip around and show her as more tragic or more reasonable than other, very obviously worse villains. If you want to make her the Mistress of All Evil, go with that; if you want to make her a sympathetic villainess, that’s fine, too. But trying to do both at the same time? That’s a hard job to try and pull off, to say the least. I did come to like her more and more as the show went on, but I still don’t feel justified putting her up in the higher spots of this list.

8. Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom.

This is an interactive attraction at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, and perhaps the element most admirable about it is that it has...a plot. A real, true, honest-to-goodness plot! That’s something other entries on this list related to the parks tend to lack. The game has guests/players traveling throughout the park to find a variety of magic portals, through which they can interact. The story has the player(s) as apprentices of Merlin, trying to stop Hades from taking over the Magic Kingdom. The God of the Dead goes about finding various villains who, having been defeated and presumably killed in life, now take residence in the Underworld. He offers each one a chance to take back power, if they will help him in finding a bunch of special crystals needed for his plan. Maleficent is one of the villains Hades summons, but if you think the Mistress of All Evil has any intention of playing second fiddle to the Lord of the Underworld, think again. During Maleficent’s section of the story, she accepts Hades’ offer, but secretly plans to use the crystals for herself to take over the entire world, and then put Hades out of business, allowing her to become the most powerful villain in the universe. (Gotta give her credit for ambition.) It’s up to the guests to get past Maleficent’s many traps and minions in order to stop her, before either she or Hades can put their fiendish schemes into motion.

7. Dream Along With Mickey.

Yet another stage show from the Magic Kingdom! This production ran for ten years, between 2006 and 2016, before being eventually replaced by “Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire.” The plot revolves around Mickey Mouse, Minnie, and Goofy trying to teach Donald Duck the importance of dreams and belief. About halfway through the show, the gang playfully pretend to be pirates…which results in the sudden appearance of Captain Hook and Mr. Smee. The two are naturally beaten by the intervention of Peter Pan…but just as it seems victory has been achieved and all is well, it’s revealed that the pirates are actually working for - you guessed it - Maleficent. The evil fairy arrives to terrorize the party, declaring her intentions to change the Magic Kingdom “into a Place Where NIGHTMARES Come True!” (I should probably mention that Maleficent’s appearance is highlighted by an instrumental version of “Hellfire.” EPICNESS.) Though ultimately defeated - because villains never prosper - Maleficent vows to return, warning the mouse, duck, and all “One day the Kingdom will stop believing, and all will be lost!” This is one of Maleficent’s biggest appearances at the Parks, in SEVERAL ways, and it’s a pity the show no longer runs at Cinderella’s Castle. Que sera sera.

6. Once Upon a Dream.

This book is part of a series called "Twisted Tales," published by Hyperion and written by Liz Braswell. Each one of these books starts off with some sort of eye-catching question and premise related to a famous Disney feature. In this case, "What if Sleeping Beauty never woke up?" The plot has it set that, after slaying Maleficent as the Dragon, Prince Philip goes to awaken Aurora, just like in the film...but then something goes horribly wrong. For some reason, instead of waking the princess with true love's kiss, the prince falls asleep, too! The plot then shifts, as we find ourselves in what seems to be a parallel universe, where Aurora is Maleficent's daughter, and the Mistress of All Evil is controlling the entire kingdom. It's quickly made clear that - as you may or may not have guessed - this is a dreamworld going on inside of the head of Aurora and all the other denizens of the kingdom. The Princess has to figure out a way to beat Maleficent - with Philip's help - and wake up from the nightmare. What's great about this story is that Maleficent is kept in-character. She remains cold, crafty, and above all, VILLAINOUS: she's still the bad guy in this story, and she feels, generally speaking, like the character we all know and love to hate. My only problem with this story is that it feels like it borrows a lot from another Disney movie, "Tangled," with Maleficent essentially in the Mother Gothel role, Aurora as Rapunzel, and Philip as Flynn Rider. (All of their names even sound vaguely similar, now that I think about it.) But there's enough different about it to make it interesting, and I appreciate the novel using the “Maleficent as a Mother” trope (which has, again, become unusually popular) while still deciding to make Maleficent the dastardly adversary we all worship and abhor by the end of the tale.

5. Fantasmic!

This is one of the most lauded, spectacular, and looked-forward-to shows at the Disney Parks. It’s currently still put on at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, and there used to be versions done for Tokyo Disneyland. Maleficent’s role in the proceedings is nominally very small, but the impact her appearance makes cannot be understated. While every production over the years has made some changes, the premise of the show remains the same: Mickey Mouse guides us on a trip through his own little dreamworld, where his imagination reigns supreme, and every story ends happily ever after. Everything is fun and fancy free (ha ha), until the Evil Queen gets wind of what’s going on. Incensed, she summons various Disney Villains to help her “turn that little mouse’s dream into a Nightmare Fantasmic!” This culminates in the arrival of Maleficent: “Now you will deal with me, and all the Powers of MY IMAGINATION!” In every version, the grand climax of the show has Maleficent transforming into her dragon form, and SETTING THE ENTIRE DREAM WORLD ON FIRE. (Yikes!) In the midst of this fiery chaos, Mickey must step forward and remind the villains just whose dream this is, defeating the mighty dragon in the process. It’s by fair one of the “biggest” shows in Disney history, and certainly one of Maleficent’s “biggest” appearances (in more ways than one). I was very sad and distressed when I heard that, recently, the Disneyland version of the dragon experienced some...technical difficulties, so to speak. You can look up what I mean, if you don't know already. What this means for Maleficent's future in the production is presently hard to say for sure, but I think it's unlikely she'll be leaving Mickey alone for good anytime soon.

4. Mistress of All Evil: A Tale of the Dark Fairy.

Take notes, “Maleficent” movies and “Once Upon a Time.” If you want to try and provide a backstory to Maleficent, and make her more sympathetic, THIS is how you do it. While this book - part of a series by Serena Valentino, showing the backstories of various Disney antagonists (and the Beast...for some reason) - is not exactly perfect, it certainly achieves that aforementioned goal MUCH more successfully. In this book, Maleficent is still the elegant, dangerous, graceful enchantress we all remember, but we learn the reason why she’s so very wicked, and we also learn that her reasons for what she did in the film were much deeper than one might have expected. It also makes us see that the heroes of the story were not always so squeaky clean, and while it doesn’t totally vilify them - Maleficent is still decidedly evil in her actions, and they are decidedly good - it makes it clear that the line between the two extremes isn’t always as clean cut as we would expect. In short, this book is what I think those other versions, especially the Jolie-starring movies, tried to be: essentially Disney’s version of “Wicked,” taking a lot of the same themes and even some slightly similar story elements from those earlier films, but using them in a much better way than before. Again, it’s by no means perfect, as a book OR as a backstory, but it ultimately does much more and manages to work much better than other similar attempts. And since Maleficent is the focus, it once again stands as something quite unique in her catalogue of appearances.

3. Twisted Wonderland.

Okay, so, this is KIND OF cheating, but I'm sorry, I HAVE to talk about this game. "Twisted Wonderland" is a mobile video game, in which your character gets "zapped" into an alternate universe. In this universe, they find themselves at a School of Black Magic which was inspired by seven of the great Disney Villains. (I have no idea how THAT happened, but whatever.) Among them is Maleficent, but although she is referenced several times, the Dark Queen HERSELF is relatively peripheral: she's long dead by the time the story begins. No, the focus of the game is on the students and staff of the school - Night Raven College - who are all based on (and sometimes descended from) the classic villains in question. One of the most prominent characters in the game is a descendant of Maleficent: the half-dragon Prince of the Dark Fae, Malleus Draconia. What's great about Malleus is what's great about all the characters in the game, really: unlike the "Descendants" franchise, which has a slightly similar premise, these characters are not merely stock figures who ride the coattails of the classic baddies of yore. Instead, they keep elements of the original villains close, but enough is changed about them to make them unique and interesting figures in their own right. Malleus has Maleficent's sense of style and aesthetics, and like her, his fury is a dangerous thing to provoke. He’s one of the most powerful beings in the entire WORLD, in the universe of the game, able to control the elements through his sheer will…yet despite all that power, and his dark aura, he’s got a lot of soft spots and some noted vulnerabilities. He CAN be dangerous and intimidating, make no mistake: he's more than aware of his power and who and what he is. Underneath it all, however, he’s a very lonely soul who longs for a sense of real companionship and belonging. I really can't do this guy justice with just a short written description; you really need to look into this title and this character for yourself. Ever since I met him, he was a shoe-in for my Top Three.

2. Kingdom Keepers.

This novel series by Ridley Pearson is essentially a darker, Disney-fied version of “Night at the Museum.” In the books, it’s revealed that, late at night, when everything closes down, all the attractions and rides and so forth at Disney Parks come to life, and many of Disney’s characters come to life, too...both good and evil. Enter The Overtakers - a band of nasties (most of them Disney Villains) who want to, as their group title suggests, take over the world. (OF COURSE!) Maleficent is one of the key antagonists of the series: she is the second-in-command of the Overtakers, the only character outshining her being the devilish Chernabog. You could almost say she is the Darth Vader of the franchise, in comparison to Chernabog’s Palpatine. This version of Maleficent has one interesting differentiation from her original film counterpart: while the original Maleficent was a being of fire - able to transform into a dragon, vanishing in flashes of flame, etc. - this Maleficent is as frosty as her heart. Everywhere she treads, she emanates an aura of coldness; where she steps, ice forms, and she prefers to hide out in chilly places. She still has power over flame, of course, among all sorts of other magic, but it’s this constant, frigid aura that makes her stand out. Anytime our heroes - a group of teens tasked with stopping the Overtakers - venture someplace with even the faintest chill, they get worried, and anytime things get dark and cold in the atmosphere, the reader immediately gets nervous or excited, wondering when the Mistress of Evil is going to make her grand entrance. I really love these books, and I’d love to see Disney do some sort of movie or TV series based on them sometime. Personally, I’d pick Cate Blanchett or Eva Green for Maleficent, if they ever do…but I digress.

1. Kingdom Hearts.

As the secondary antagonist of this highly popular video game series, “Kingdom Hearts” has probably done more for Maleficent’s popularity than anything else she’s been in. Almost anytime I bring up this Evil Fairy, her role in Kingdom Hearts is not far behind. In the first game, Maleficent was really the main antagonist, until Xehanort’s Heartless (a.k.a. Ansem the Seeker of Darkness) essentially hijacked the climax from her. In that game, Maleficent assembled a gang of Disney Villains to help her take over Kingdom Hearts, and thereby gain power over all worlds. However, she overestimated her power to control the Heartless and the darkness inside her own wretched heart, and was ultimately destroyed by the aforementioned surprise main villain. This, however, was not the end for Maleficent: she was brought back to life sometime later, and since then she has continued to try all sorts of tricks and schemes to conquer the universe. Ironically, despite her grandiose nature, Maleficent’s desire for and knowledge about Kingdom Hearts is largely due to the machinations of the main antagonist of the franchise, Xehanort himself; however, the more she learns about the universe around her, the more dangerous she becomes. Even though she hasn’t had quite the prominency in later games that she had in the first, she’s always there, sort of creeping through the sidelines, plotting and planning her next big break to get the power she so desperately craves, and seems to feel she deserves. In many games of the series, she’s assisted by Mickey Mouse’s arch-nemesis Pete, and the contrast between the refined, intelligent, proud, and powerful Maleficent against the much more bungling and coarse Pete is actually quite a potent cocktail for humorous chemistry. All things told, it’s no surprise that the Kingdom Hearts games are My Favorite Appearance from Maleficent...outside of her original film, of course.

HONORABLE MENTIONS INCLUDE…

The Angelina Jolie Movies. (I don’t like these films, to be honest, BUT the fact Maleficent GOT solo movies is worth mentioning, which is why I place them here.)

House of Mouse. (She didn’t have a lot to do, but the appearances she had were memorable.)

"Disney Villains: Maleficent" Comic Series. (A joint publication between Dynamite Entertainment and Disney...now I want to see Maleficent meet The Shadow. XD )

Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough. (Had to at least mention the one major ride/attraction she appears in at the parks, didn’t I?)

[meyerlansky]

interesting thing i'm chewing on about astarion and the rest of the party:

the stuff tav talks with him about stays WAY more private than basically every other conversation the party characters have, whether with tav or with each other. gale talks to mystra in a little bubble that's just the two of them, no tav, no one else? the whole party knows what he said (or didn't say) in that conversation. wyll changes the terms of his pact with mizora? even the newest recruits have an opinion about what he chose.

but no one has any of that relatively surface-level information about astarion—except the player character—despite the conversations happening in the same camp[s], with presumably the same amount of privacy, as every other companion conversation. DEEP into act iii, shadowheart is still making digs about him eating people, even though he tells tav in act i that he's never had sentient blood until the events of the game. jaheira calls him a slut when they're talking about being more comfortable in the city's back streets than in the polished touristy areas, despite the player knowing that the LAST thing he wants is to be seen as a sex object. he doesn't correct any of them, either. arguably he leans into it, which makes sense, considering he does the same thing in act i—before he trusts the player character enough to drop the mask.

that's not even getting into how the tadpole mind meld stuff plays in—either everyone is notably respectful of his boundaries [which, lmao. unlikely, considering no one respects his boundaries without a fight.] and doesn't go poking around in his head, OR he can somehow keep anyone trying out.

i dunno. it's interesting. it's an interesting writing and characterization choice, especially since it seems like it's ONLY astarion keeping the entire rest of the party at arms' length. he just seems so isolated, except for tav, and i'm feeling some kind of way about it.

[iwantasquaresbar]

Buddie rambling and speculation (don’t like don’t read :))

I’ve got extreme buddie brain rot, and before this most recent episode I was genuinely like 80% convinced we were gonna get buddie endgame. I always thought it was going to take a while like end of season 8 or in season 9. But I think like every one else that last episode just baffled me. It’s so strange I mean we will see I guess where things are going to go it doesn’t completely change what I think might happen but boy does it confuse me.

Because to me Buck is primed and ready, like he’s ready for a serious relationship, he’s worked out his sexuality and yeah he’s with Tommy at the moment and is happy. Which I’m enjoying he should be able to have a sweet romance. However to me it always seemed like they were intentionally leaving little cracks in their relationship and those cracks if torn open always lead right to Eddie or Buddie. I’m aware I’m delusional. But like 7x04 I feel like we all know Buck was jealous of both Tommy and Eddie. Like that peacocking in gym was not for Tommy, but I do genuinely believe he wanted Tommys attention too. They also spend that whole episode drawing attention to the similarities between Eddie and Tommy. Then Eddie turns up on the date and in my opinion Buck wouldn’t have done the whole hype straight routine if it had been any other character (also don’t love Tommys closet joke or his leaving but also he should be able to protect his own peace).

Then arguably the most intriguing to me is the costumes at the beginning of 7x06 like I agree it’s not that big of a deal that Tommys not in a costume if he’s on call but what is a big deal is having Buck bring it up. Because idk about anyone else i wouldn’t have realised Tommy wasn’t wearing a costume if it wasn’t brought up, and like it would be so easy to put him in a patterned shirt or have a cute moment where buck makes fun of him not being dressed up then like give him some like fun 80s glasses or some shit like that could’ve been a cute moment but no they had Buck be a little disappointed and Tommy act nonchalant. Then they follow it up with a scene where Eddie is the only one interested in bucks plans for a bachelor party and then he suggests matching costumes for them. Like ik im crazy but im not that crazy right like ik that scene is probably more to do with showing that they don’t know each that well yet and they’re learning and how tommy makes an effort to come but like i just don’t know why we got that parallel. Sorry this little thing just drives me insane.

Anyway the point of this post is I believe Buck is ready for buddie like the door is closed because he’s dating someone else but it’s not locked and it’s easy to open up. But Eddie he has so much work to do he needs to properly grieve Shannon and realise he doesn’t need to replace her for his or Chris’s sake. Then maybe he can face that he might not be as straight as he originally thought.

Basically i still definitely believe buddie can happen and be endgame i think they’ve set a good foundation especially on bucks part but Eddie has a long way to go and it’s gonna take time. I think the writers are keeping there options open and we won’t really get an idea if anything will happen between them until probably like end of season 8

[jozor-johai]

some thoughts on identity as a motif in asoiaf. feel free to add on!

mostly just thinking about this because of how anything in asoiaf gains meaning from continued repetition, so it's interesting to keep track of these things, and see how different approaches to the same idea give more depth to the meaning.

Sometimes, these ideas are so similar that people create theories to argue that they are literally the same character. I think most "secret identity" theories are often misinterpretations of thematic parallels; yes, these characters have a lot in common thematically, but it does not need to be the case that they are literally the same character.

However, I recognize that playing with identity is its own motif in ASOIAF, so some thoughts:

Jon Snow's false identity; Young Griff's false identity, along with his whole party: Griff, the mysterious Septa Lemore, Duck, etc. Quentyn Martell (also a prince!) and his assumed identity, also in Essos, along with his entire party posing as sellswords. Barristan Selmy posing as Arstan Whitebeard. Alleras / Sarella. Asha pretending to be Esgred. Mance being glamoured as Rattleshirt, and later Mance as Abel. Varys as Rugen, and his other disguises. Ramsay Snow posing as Reek, and later Theon being forced to become Reek by Ramsay. And Theon-as-Reek "pretending" to be Theon again.

Which brings me to the chapter titles: identity is such a strong motif that it is also communicated in a structural way through the chapter titles, which begin to describe the characters rather than name them, or else take on the assumed name of the POV character.

Theon becomes Reek and the chapters reflect that. As he escapes the notion of Reek, the chapter titles reflect his changing identity. Sansa loses her identity, becoming Alayne, which is reflected in the chapter titles. Victarion goes in the opposite direction; he is the Iron Captain, the Reaver, and the Iron Suitor before his last chapter title becomes Victarion. Arya's identity changes as early as the second book, becoming Arry aka Lumpyhead, then Weasel, then Nan, then Squab, then Salty. Then she joins the Faceless Men, who heavily question the notion of identity, and cause Arya to question her notions of identity as a major plot device. Arya's chapter titles become Cat of the Canals, the Blind Girl, the Ugly Little Girl. We also get insight into other character's sense of identity, as well, even if they never get a chapter of their own name.

Plenty more to be said about the chapter titles, I'm sure, but Arya brings us to the Faceless Men, and Jaqen -> the Alchemist -> Pate, as far as we know.

On the topic of "anonymous organizations", there's the mystery of the identity of the Harpy, and the issue with the anonymity of the Sons of the Harpy, as well as, arguably, the equal issue with the anonymity of the Brazen Beasts (as the Shavepate is able to infiltrate his personal men into their ranks secretly).

Some identities that fundamentally change with death: Catelyn becoming Lady Stoneheart, and "Robert Strong", assuming he was the Mountain originally.

Beric feels like he's losing his sense of self with each time he dies, which is interesting because as that happens more and more of the Brotherhood Without Banners pretend to be Beric—he loses himself at the same rate his person becomes a symbol instead of a man. Also fitting for the Brotherhood Without Banners—no banners means without an identity in the way that most of Westeros conceives of it.

Because one's banners are their identity. Lannisters are "Lions" and Starks become "wolves" and there is a need to distinguish between wolves on two legs and wolves on four. The Tyrells are "roses" complete with thorns. "Dragons" refers to Targaryens just as often as it refers to actual dragons if not more. Obviously this continues ad infinitum.

And insofar as House names are identity, there is the voluntary renunciation of identity when becoming a Maester and losing one's last name, or taking the Black and forsaking one's familial ties, or to a lesser extent joining the Kingsguard and renouncing one's claim to lands. All of these are a loss of identity; one might argue that exile is a forced loss of identity in the same vein.

Which makes the Golden Company especially interesting, because they claim Westerosi names but without any real need to back them up with lineage.

And there are other voluntarily assumed identities that are not necessarily meant to be disguise, just self-chosen names. Bards often are specified as taking on stage names of a sort, like Rymund the Rhymer, Symon Silvertongue, and Tom Sevenstrings aka Tom of Sevenstreams aka Tom o'Sevens. Lem Lemoncloak. Cersei is especially bothered by the idea that the "Blue Bard" is really just a smallfolk man named Wat.

The "High Sparrow" might be more like a stage name, more important as the symbol of an identity than as a person. "The Hound" is also like a stage name, and the mystery of the Hound raiding Saltpans shows how the identity of the Hound can be separated from Sandor Clegane himself. Interesting that Lem, who already has a sort of second identity, will don the Hound over that in WINDS.

There is the mystery of identity even when assumed names are not into play, as with the Kettleblacks; they mystery of who they are and where they come from is important even without fake names (as far as we know).

Then there is the identity as reflected in prophecy. Melisandre sees a girl who she thinks is Jon's sister but then Alys Karstark appears. Melisandre sees Renly attacking Stannis' host at the Blackwater who turns out to be Loras in Renly's armor. Arguably, this applies to the symbol-identities we get: we understand that someone "is" the Mummer's Dragon, we understand that someone is the "giant" that Sansa will slay.

The "Three Eyed Crow" might be part of this category, and the idea of an assumed "dream identity". Maybe the weirwoods and warging are more identity-issues; Varamyr talks about how wargs take on the animal characteristics—so warging itself is about identity, too.

Which is then doubly potent with Hodor, who is a whole person that Bran is stealing the identity of.

There are tons and tons more but this is just a collection of thoughts on the idea.

[imagitory]

So my mum and I were revisiting one of our all-time favorite Christmas movies, The Muppet Christmas Carol, and I think maybe -- just maybe -- there's some really fun symbolism we've all been missing out on. And it all has to do with our main character Scrooge and the color red.

Okay, so at the beginning of the film, Scrooge is in all black, from head to toe. It makes him this wonderful dark shadow over the rest of the cast, and also makes him immediately stand out when he's in public, since everyone else is much more colorfully dressed.

Contrast this especially to the people who are closest to him, Bob Crachit and his nephew Fred.

Well, well, isn't this interesting...both of them have red in their costumes. Even later on, at Fred's Christmas party, we see his wife also wearing red.

The Ghost of Christmas Present -- the ghost who in this film arguably influences Scrooge the most out of all of them -- has a bright red beard...

Oh yes, and we mustn't forget that our favorite narrator "Charles Dickens" is also wearing a bright red coat. (Even his friend Rizzo has some red in his scarf.)

Red as a color can mean lots of different things symbolically -- violence, passion, anger, courage, danger...but I think the one most relevant to this reading is love and warmth. Why? Because even when we see Scrooge as a young man prior to the "all black" treatment, his definitive color is a dark blue.

Notice how much cooler young Scrooge's overall color palette is compared to the much flashier, rosier Fozziwig. (And yes, I think that rosy palette is on purpose -- in the film, Scrooge even describes Fozziwig as being "as hard and as ruthless as a rose petal.") It also makes it so that when Scrooge meets Belle (at this point dressed in pale green with pink rose details), their palettes compliment each other a little bit more, even if Belle's look is still softer, lighter, and warmer in tone to Scrooge's cool, serious ensemble.

But when Belle and Scrooge part ways, we see them wearing colors that contrast much more. Scrooge is still in cool, detached blue, but Belle is in...

Red. Specifically, like Bob and Fred, she has red right around her neck, in the form of her bonnet's ribbon. And it's presumed that over time, after losing Belle and withdrawing more into himself and his own greedy self interest, that Scrooge lost the remaining color of his life and became the cold, black-hearted moneylender we see in the film.

Then of course Scrooge goes through this radical transformation thanks to the Ghosts of Christmas, as we all know...and the very first Christmas present he receives, as a thank you for his charity, is from one of the charity workers, played by Beaker. What is it?

A red scarf.

It's a gift given in the spur of the moment, and yet from Scrooge's reaction, we can tell it's something foreign to him. It's likely it's been ages since he's received such a modest, and yet heartfelt gift from anyone. Scrooge feels the warmth of the gesture, not just because a scarf keeps one's neck warm, but because it was given out of such sincere gratitude and kindness. And as startled as he is by it, he responds with such sincere joy, and wears it happily for the rest of the day. He wears that warmth as easily as Fred and Bob wore it earlier in the film -- as if it's become a part of him. And in a strange way, it has.

For the first time, arguably in his whole life, Scrooge has a true understanding of selfless, loving warmth. The warmth that he should and does feel for the people most central to his life and identity -- his nephew and niece-in-law, his loyal subordinate, his first employer, his first love...even the Spirits who taught him the true "meaning of the season." A kind, generous warmth that permeates the entire story of A Christmas Carol because it's what Charles Dickens loved so much about the holiday season and so wished to spark in his audience.

[copperbadge]

@scifigrl47: King Arthur Baking Company has a new “loaded baked potato” pizza recipe and I kind of want to try it.

Me: CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

@scifigrl47​: Nobody issued any kind of chall -- 

Me: THIS RECIPE IS WRONG

That’s not verbatim how it went down but it’s more or less what happened. I’m sure it’s actually a fine recipe, I have yet to get a stinker from KA Baking, but I don’t like straight un-mashed potato and I didn’t like cheddar as the only cheese on a pizza, so I decided to design my own. 

[ID: A photograph of a pizza baked in a cast iron pan, sprinkled with seasoning, with bacon visible here and there; the two kinds of cheese are both golden-brown from the oven.]

The modified KA Baking pizza recipe I use creates two deep-dish cast-iron crusts, so I made one full-on experimental potato pizza and one relatively normal pizza.

First, I let the dough rise in the pan and then gave it a very light sprinkling of mozzarella cheese. I added my usual pizza sauce to half, and left the other half sauceless. I took cold instant garlic mashed potatoes (I don't want to hear it, instant mash is fast and comes out perfect every time) and sprinkled broken up bits of it all over the pizza, then sprinkled cooked bacon bits over that.

I covered half the pizza with sharp cheddar and half with low-moisture part-skim mozzarella (my pizza cheese of choice), arranged so that there were four quadrants: sauced-cheddar, sauced-mozzarella, unsauced-cheddar, and unsauced-mozzarella.

[ID: Two photos of the same not-yet-baked pizza, one without cheese so the potato and bacon is visible, one with cheese, to demonstrate how it's half-and-half cheddar and mozzarella.]

The other pizza, I used pizza sauce on the whole thing, mozzarella cheese on the whole thing, then half I sprinkled with sauteed diced mushrooms (a personal favorite) and half I dolloped with mashed potato and tomato-onion jam.

[ID: A pizza in a cast iron pan, dotted with red sauce and mushrooms, with chunks of mashed potato here and there, brown at the edges.]

That one'll eat well regardless, I feel.

Anyway, I baked them at 450 for 15 minutes, and the experimental pizza came out of the oven looking fine, so I sliced it and taste-tested each slice.

[ID: Two images of the same experimental pizza; it is sliced in four quarters. In the second image, each slice has one giant bite taken out of it, right at the point, so that it looks like the pizza has a hole in the middle of it.]

I live alone, if I want to take a bite out of every slice of pizza, it's fine.

Anyway, my tasting notes are thus:

-- I still prefer mozzarella to cheddar. Cheddar gets kind of nasty when it melts open like this. Crunchy and oily, not a fan.

-- The bacon bits were either too large or shouldn't be there at all. I'm not a fan of bacon on pizza for texture reasons; the bacon should be a flavoring, I think.

-- It needs sauce. It just does. Mashed potatoes straight onto pizza crust is too much dry stuff at once. The mozzarella helps, but only so much. The pizza sauce, while it did add a nice texture, was not the right flavor for the potato. I think instead of pizza sauce, a bacon-ranch sauce would be ideal, incorporating the bacon flavor without adding too much crunch.

-- A perfectly nice pizza, but like, there's no reason to do this other than novelty. Arguably just making 'tato skins would be easier. Still, it's a fun thing to serve at a party or something.

I did have some leftover bacon so I made a bacon-onion sauce out of sour cream, a tiny bit of milk, the remaining bacon, and a generous spoonful of dried onions.

[ID: A sour cream cup with a fork in it; the cup is about half-full of a sour cream sauce with red and green flecks of bacon and onion.]

I'll try dunking the reheated pizza in it and see how that goes. But I'm willing to call this a qualified success. Eminently edible, and it was fun to do!

[izamationbroker]

My current job is pretty laidback about us having phones out and listening to music as we work sorting archaeological artifacts in a lab, so I've started binge-rewatching Durarara!! from the very beginning.

I've already finished the original run yesterday and just started x2 Shou, but some thoughts I had:

At least in the anime adaptation, the original run was meant to be pretty self-contained in the event they weren't able to continue (which to be fair was true for quite a while before x2 got greenlit), so rather than consider the original run a "phase one" of Izaya's grander scheme to start a gang war and awaken Celty's head it makes a bit more sense to think of it in the context of a failed first attempt.

In that context, it makes me wonder how he felt about it, his first grand failure. Grand enough that he felt the need to step back and lay low so he could go back to the drawing board (see: his initial conversation with Shizuo in ep 25).

I honestly bet he picked a fight with Shizuo just to take out his frustrations on it all. He managed to create a messy three-way conflict and get Celty roped into it as Anri and Mikado's friend, but the head gave narry a stir. Not to mention, Celty was able to help them resolve things pretty easily by just getting these dumb kids to actually talk to each other.

I don't remember the episode number because I just binged the whole thing, but Shingen at one point suggests that rather than rope Celty into a conflict, Izaya should try to center the conflict around Celty herself. Izaya claimed he was doing just that, but I don't think he really succeeded in the initial run. Sure, Celty was involved, but more as an independent third (fourth?) party than as a focal point. She was in the Dollars and friends with both Anri and Mikado, but she didn't really have much of a stake in the squabble itself. That was just a big messy of miscommunication between three high schoolers completely unrelated to her. That must have been frustrating, honestly, getting so close but falling just short of what he needed.

Then, on top of everything else, he wasn't even really involved in the resolution of the fight itself, either. He says in his theory that he needs to create a war only HE can win, right? I'd imagine that's why he was fucking around with a bunch of kids rather than the bigger leagues like the Yakuza that he works with regularly: it's a lot easier to insert yourself as an authority as the only adult. He'd be able to take control of that situation so easily, but Celty took that role instead, so he never even got a chance to win the war.

And to blow off steam from his initial failure, what does he do? He deliberately picks a fight with Shizuo, someone he generally tries to avoid when he can help it, by fucking with his brother's safety.

I wonder if he needed to feel alive for a minute by reminding himself of the loom of death. Shizuo's arguably the only one that actually threatens Izaya enough to feel any sense of awe or dread. I wonder if he wanted to put himself in that position to remind himself what was at stake and give him the motivation to go back to the drawing board and try again. He really does have a Shizuo Complex in that sense.

Anyway, I might do Shou, Ten, and Ketsu individually as I finish them, but if anyone would prefer a liveblog instead, lmk. I might stop at Shou for now, tho, because Wa-kun and I are I thiiiink like halfway through Ten? And I don't wanna spoil them with my rambling.

[spifflocated]

I think, as a Vetinari/Drumknott shipper, The Last Hero has the potential to be the most beautifully heartbreaking book for them in the whole Discworld, despite the fact that Drumknott is never even named in it.

Some spoilers under the cut, though the biggest spoiler is probably that the Discworld series continues afterwards...

The Last Hero follows not long after the Truth (my best guess at the timeline puts it somewhat arbitrarily in the late summer of the same year, not long after Night Watch/ Thief of Time), where Rufus demonstrates the extent of his faith in Vetinari. By the end of the book, their trust in each other is apparent- Drumknott has protected Vetinari's reputation, and Vetinari brings Drumknott with him to The Times' offices, arguably simply as a companion. We see the beginnings of the two of them working together as a unit, in the way which is so much fun to read in Going Postal.

And then The Last Hero arrives, and Vetinari finds himself having to organise an effort to save the world, because essentially no one else can be trusted to get all of the different parties to work together well enough to get things done. And, because the planning and preparation will have to carry on during the sea journey to get there, he has to leave the city. It's a simple choice- if he doesn't go, and it doesn't work, there won't be a city. But if he does go, he's leaving the city at a time of crisis under a temporary governance. And even if the mission succeeds, there's no guarantee that Vetinari will make it back to Ankh Morpork. Worse things, as they say, happen at sea.

Drumknott isn't mentioned in TLH, so it's a fair assumption that he stays in the city. Which brings us to my personal headcanon: Vimes and the guild council are nominally in charge, but essentially Vetinari has left his beloved city in Drumknott's care. Which is a frankly remarkable show of trust, and is one of the reasons I like to envision them established in whatever type of relationship (platonic or not) you prefer to see them in by this point.

And then, think of it from Rufus's perspective. This is not the first time he has had to stay at home while Vetinari sets out on an uncertain mission. In Jingo, Rufus seemed to simply keep his head down- Lord Rust had taken over, after all. But now, he has to wait, and try to stop the city falling into chaos as word spreads of the potential end of the world, and hope against hope that Vetinari will come back to him. He has to stay, and do what he can, and Vetinari has to go. They have to face the end of the world apart, knowing that there is no other choice, because their loyalty is to each other but their duty is to the city. Sometimes I think of Rufus, alone at night, exhausted after a day of fighting fires but unable to sleep with worry for Vetinari, and with no news of if the mission is going to plan, or if it has proved hopeless and the world will end, and they'll never see each other again. And for a man who lives at the centre of Vetinari's web of information to suddenly have no news and no ability to change the outcome, it must have been so hard.

[readbyred]

You're writing for the new TD? That's fun! I cannot wait to see more of it 🫶 Would it be possible for if you wrote about contestants that have no dating experience and ask their fellow contestants for flirting advice and strategy? I think this would be especially fun with contestants like Zee, Priya and so on! Thank you if you're writing this! 👐

I already like you anon, that’s a good req. I’ll do a part two if u want, with all contestants even. But for now I have only a few cause some just fit the prompt more/I have an idea for them. So those will b: priya, zee, axel, scary girl, ripper, chase. If you think I have a fav team - you’re totally right haha

Also I hope I understood correctly. If not I can redo it. Like, the character is into sbd (reader) and they ask their friend for advice, yeah?

-> Priya

We all know that her whole thing is being prepared, setting goals and reaching them. Whether it’s Total Drama or med school, she has it all figured out. But there was never any camp or class on having a crush. That’s why, when she realises that she has one, she goes to Millie for help. She has a way of looking at having one as if it’s a task she needs to accomplish, a challenge to win. Needless to say - it didn’t do much. Her crush might not even know she likes them at that point. So to stop herself from making things worse, she confided in her best friend. Millie, as a fan of traditional values above all, thinks that being kind and honest about her feelings is the way. To help Priya overcome her nerves, she proposes that she should get used to her crush by being around them in a group setting. Also, as she states, chivalry can do wonders. After a few days Priya did get more comfortable around her crush, even if only a little. Any time they need help - she’s there! Even if it’s just opening doors. As they get more comfortable with each other, she’ll even propose training them. After all, Millie said that the power of true classical romance can conquer all

-> Zee

As much of an easy going guy as Zee is, he does get a tiny bit worked up about his crush. There never was much of a desire to get into a relationship. Although he is a private person, he does mention some of his feelings to Chase and Ripper. Ah, my sweet summer child. That poor guy had no idea. As soon as they hear him mention having a crush, their eyes light up and they have him sit down, so that they can tell him EXACTLY what to do. They swarm him with incoherent advice, talking one over the other. They see this as their way to show off their incredible game. Of which they have arguably none. They make a ‘game plan’ for Zee, but half of it goes over his head. The other half of information still deals massive damage though. So every time he talks with his crush he pulls those weird moves that do nothing but confuse both parties. He mixes up the pick-up lines, makes multiple failed attempts at the yawn-thing and doesn’t even really get how those things are supposed to improve anything. Imo he’s too chill to really go all out and try to win sbd over in any dramatic way. And acting like somebody different is against his own beliefs. So he only ever listens to their advice if he thinks that it will make his crush happy. That’s for the best to be honest because Chase would be projecting his feelings for Emma and living through Zee’s situation. And I can see Ripper totally quoting some date coach he watches, like, build your crush up and then destroy them to show them who’s boss, don’t smile at women to make them think they have to work for it, compare them to other people. Thankfully it doesn’t work bc it’s Zee we’re talking abt, he wouldn’t. So, good on him. And his crush.

-> Axel

My girl definitely takes her time to realise she might need help. At first she would be trying to impress her crush with her survival skills. But showing up with wild animals half cooked on a stick or leaving trinkets at their shoes might not be the best idea to get her point across. This girl’s like a cat fr! I feel like she would maybe ask Nichelle since she always seems so confident and Axel is one of the only contestants that isn’t intimidated by her fame. Asking her might sound like a good idea, but uhm,, it’s very hit or miss. She doesn’t actually have much dating experience and just like with being athletic - she’s better at talking than at doing. But if anyone can advise Axel how to approach people- it’s her. The key to get to know her crush. She advises Axel to approach it like a task, like learning a new role. Observe, maybe ask their friends or them is she’s not sure about something. Ask them questions about themselves too. It’s not too romantic but it works.

-> Lauren

I’m not sure how badly the things would have to get for her to ask anybody for help. Her methods are… uncanny to say the least. She’s not above tormenting her crush for the hell of it. Actually, it might be her favourite thing to do. But it doesn’t get her far. That’s where Priya comes in. Since they became friends she would feel a bit more comfortable asking Lauren about the whole… situation. She’d be glad to help (despite having very little experience herself) but I can’t imagine Scary girl jumping on the chance. After some time she would give in though, if her crush gets too scared of her. Priya would try to get Lauren to open up more and it’s probably terrifying for all parties involved. But in the end she does convince her eerie friend to at least try to hint to the person that she’s interested in them romantically and will NOT hunt them down for sport (most likely). It’s Scary Girl we’re talking about so it’s about as romantic as it gets

-> Ripper

Just like he said, he has tons of experience and kissed a lot of girls. He’s just… unused to caring about one person. Yeah! Bc, yk, usually he keeps a rotation of hot chicks. No need to get all worked up over one girl that he could very easily have. Still, he does ask Chase for advice. Because he’s a bro and because he’s more so the type to get with someone long term. So, perhaps if his crush proves to be worth it, he might need help with starting his first serious relationship. Ripper’s idea of getting his crush to like him back is to get rich and/or famous. Then they will find him hot. If he’ll have money then he’ll be attractive and cool. Right? Well, Chase does entertain the idea but also tries to get his bro to rizz his crush a little earlier than after they all leave the show. It’s not like he has to ask him long, Ripper has a collection of lines straight from his favourite alphalpha pick up artist podcast and is ready to use them. Chase mostly just hypes him up. But also advises him against things like, yk, farting or talking about human waste (which should be a given but isn’t). Though Ripper is on the fence about it I can see him listening to the advice depending on how his crush reacts to those things. Also Chase tries to be his wingman. Which completely blows his cover, if his crush didn’t know Ripper liked them before - they sure will after Chase gets involved

-> Chase

Now, Chase has definitely been in a relationship. But realistically speaking it could have been his first and only one. And though he’s great, objectively his crush might not jump on the chance to be with him. Like, he’s not rly, yk, emotionally mature. Also, like, he did pee himself/right on the sidewalk on a date bc he couldn’t hold it and that seemed like the best option. Would sell his crush for pizza too. But! He is persistent. And strangely charming in his own failboy way. Still, if puppy dog eyes and following his crush around doesn’t work then he will ask his bros. It will either go great or very very badly. Because Zee could genuinely have some decent advice. And it’s not that Ripper can’t get good ideas. But I feel like he would get really focused on proving his experience with girls and not on actually helping. All in all at least Chase isn’t shy about his feelings, because the flirting advice he is given varies in quality. But at least his crush will know how he feels ig

[suspicioustoads]

Today I was reminded of a work incident from a few years ago, so let me tell you about the Infamous Shit Circle.

It's 2020. I've recently returned home from college after the dorms were shut down due to pandemic reasons and needed a job to financially and emotionally sustain myself. I ended up working at a provincial park campground (while this was arguably the worst job I've worked, it was also the most beautiful place I've worked at. We take our wins where we get them).

The world is pretty insane and where does everyone escape to when they want to pretend everything is fine? They get lost in the woods for an undetermined amount of time.

Aka they go camping.

When I say everyone was looking for an escape, I mean *everyone.* Anyone with a tent and a dream was out there, especially the highschoolers. Specifically, the highschoolers who weren't allowed to party like usual (again, pandemic restrictions) but needed some sort of outlet. Partying in the woods was that outlet. Technically the campground shouldn't have allowed this but frankly, my bosses didn't care and I wasn't paid enough to rock that particular boat. Nor was I paid enough to deal with the outcome of their parties.

Picture this. You're driving the little gator loaded with cleaning supplies up to campground loop C. It's the most "in the woods" area you can get, furthest away from the lodge and campground spots are far enough away from each other you could reasonably not see or talk to anyone else for your whole stay and that'd be normal.

The first thing that hits you is the smell.

It's the woods, campground outhouses are nearby, sometimes you'll just catch a wiff of feces but this? This is bad. This is worse than bad. This is offensive. This is a violation of the Genova Convention.

(Fun fact! When you smell something, it's because you're smelling the particles of that something in the air, which is now in your nose, triggering all those lovely olfactory senses.)

You hope to god that this stench is just the result of an animal's stomach ache, a freshly emptied RV waste tank, but you know it isn't.

Then you see the toilet paper.

Streams of toilet paper trail up the road, dangling from trees like poorly hung streamers at a 5 year old's birthday party.

All leading up to one campground you'd already heard about this morning. The campground that'd been cause of multiple complaints throughout the night. A group of 18 to 20 somethings, responsible for excessive noise, disrupting campground neighbors, making a mess of the place, all things that you'd come to expect from party hard campers. You wonder what those noise complaints specified, but now you don't really want to know.

You pull into the campsite and for the first time all summer, you geniunely consider quitting on the spot.

In the middle of the campsite is an almost perfect circle of Human Feces. It's like a group of people got into a circle, popped a squat, and collectively experienced the Sugar Free Haribo Gummy Bears Colon Cleanse.

It got worse. There was more shit outside the campsite, creating a nice little border. More toilet paper hung from the trees, some of it clearly used. Empty beer cans, food wrappers, and other garbage was strewn through the trees.

So what do you do? What do you do after witnessing the aftermath of a remarkably shitty party?

You drive back to the shop and get the big shovel.

[utilitycaster]

Some of the resentment I've seen of FCG's coin feels like it stems from viewing FCG as less a character than a vehicle for Sam to do bits. They view the coin as Sam doing a bit that isn't landing and is taking up time and space that could go to the actual characters in the group that have stories instead of what they view as a bunch of disconnected jokes. I saw this with FCG going into the Grand Ring, too. People on Twitter saying that that was Sam trying to get the group killed for a laugh.

Truly I have to believe there is either one server or just like...a bunch of very stupid people who all follow each other and parrot each other's takes because the reaction to the Grand Disk especially is absolutely batshit fucking nuts:

If you give a heroic adventurer a weird noise, they are probably going to investigate it. If they investigate it, they are probably going to check it out. If FCG hadn't run in, someone else would have.

This show has been on for literally 8 years now and there has never been a main campaign TPK. Truly the Otohan fight is the only one where I take serious issue with the balance and signaling, and even then, so what, half the party died, they fixed it. Why is this fight different from all other fights?

On top of that this happened before we knew resurrection was broken, too, so like, the reaction during the episode truly makes no sense; the audience knowledge was that this party has THREE people who have revivify and two with Raise Dead and only one true glass cannon. They are arguably better positioned to take on threats than like, Bells Hells the regular party.

If a character dies the cast member will play another character and just based on the track record of past replacement characters the chances are high that they will be just as good if not better. If you don't want to watch a show in which permanent character death is an option then go do that.

I have, recently, actively tried to push back on the "bro do you even play TTRPGs" attitude people sometimes have regarding really stupid criticism, and to be fair this is narrative criticism too but like...unless a TPK is explicitly the goal or baked into the setting as a possibility (eg: Calamity; Neverafter; games designed for it like the Tomb of Horrors module or Call of Cthulhu or something) the GM absolutely does not want a TPK. Do you know how much fucking PAPERWORK is wasted in a TPK. If they had a TPK Matt would have had to look at an entire encounter and backstory regarding, say, Oltgar and Drixlitch, that he had lovingly designed, and go "well, guess that's fucked."

So anyway if you saw FCG go through the gates and your thought was not "ooh, combat" but rather "this will be a TPK" idk work on your breathing exercises or something because that's a wild leap.

Anyway the funniest thing in all of this is that the most recent episode made it clear that it's not just a bit. Also though it's like. Which "actual" characters? Chetney has been pretty decently served as a character, all things considered; the entire solstice plot revolves around Imogen so it's time for Laura to get a well-deserved break so Imogen can actually process and develop as a person rather than just be under constant nonstop stress; I love Fearne but this arc is just not really about her whole deal; and both FRIDA and Deanna have gotten plenty to do. Honestly while balance between characters is not really a thing in the sense that some people make D&D characters with tons of hooks and things to do and paths to take and some do not, and also the overall narrative of the party is important to consider*, the character balance of this particular arc has been the best of the whole campaign.

*most people get this intuitively UNLESS they are particularly stupid, or have either shipping or My Blorbo Is The Protagonist brainrot, to the point that you can diagnose these conditions when someone's previously decent understanding of story falls off a cliff